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KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Police have arrested Oakland Alope Taoipu Faamoe in connection with a 2022 Salt Lake killing.
- Faamoe was arrested for investigation of murder, obstruction of justice and firearm discharge.
- Police say a witness linked Faamoe to the crime, matching details with evidence.
SALT LAKE CITY ā The suspected gunman in a 2022 killing in Salt Lake City has been arrested following a break in the unsolved homicide investigation.
Oakland Alope Taoipu Faamoe, 31, was taken into custody Tuesday for investigation of murder, obstruction of justice and felony discharge of a firearm.
On Jan. 23, 2022, Anetupou Niualiku, 50, was shot and killed in a parking lot near 130 S. 800 West. A man standing near Niukaliku when she was shot told police “that there had been a white passenger vehicle that was driving by and someone in the vehicle fired shots in the direction of (him) and the victim. The eyewitness then called 911 to request help after the victim was struck by gunfire,” according to a police booking affidavit.
Salt Lake police have not said whether detectives believe Niualiku was the intended target, nor have they released any information about a possible motive, only saying that the “investigation is still ongoing.”
Witnesses saw a white Hyundai Sonata drive off after the shooting. The yearslong investigation led to photos of the suspect vehicle being released on March 18 to aid in new leads.
“The investigation stalled until a recent witness came forward and told (the investigator) about a possible suspect,” the affidavit states.
That witness claimed that a second man who was with Faamoe during the shooting had confessed to him that Faamoe was the gunman, according to the affidavit. The witness was able to provide details about the incident to police that “were not known to the public and are consistent with the facts of the case.”
Detectives determined Faamoe drove a white Hyundai matching the suspect vehicle description, and Faamoe had received a traffic ticket in that car just days before the shooting death.
Phone records and other evidence also placed Faamoe and the second man in the area at the time of the killing. The two were “in direct contact before and after the alleged incident,” according to police.
The gun used in the fatal shooting remained missing as of Wednesday, police said. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call police.
Contributing: Pat Reavy
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.